The opposition of E.Guinée asks for sanctions while its leader marks his 40 years in power

The opposition of Equatorial Guinea has called for international sanctions against the regime of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the leader being widely criticized for his rights violations marking four decades of power.

Obiang Nguema will celebrate his forty years of power on Saturday, underscoring his status as the oldest head of state in Africa since taking power in a 1979 coup.

Victim of multiple coup attempts and badbadination attempts, the head of Equatorial Guinea ruthlessly suppressed at his home the enemies and alleged plotters of the former Spanish colony.

In a statement released on Friday, the main opposition party in Central Africa, Citizens for Innovation (CI), called for the banning of travel and visas for members of the government and the government. parliament.

The CI party was outlawed by the authorities in February 2018, when it had already won seats in the parliamentary and municipal elections.

Twenty-one members of CI, including the only member of the party's parliament, were sentenced to 30 years in jail on charges of "sedition, public disorder, attacks on authority, and serious bodily harm."

On Friday, the party called on the "governments of the world to demand the president of the republic and his government" to grant the CI the seats won.

During his last re-election in 2016, Obiang Nguema won more than 90% of the vote. But opposition groups said the elections were flawed.

"Climate of fear"

In a report released Friday, Amnesty International called on the government to end what the human rights group has called for decades of violations, including torture, arbitrary detentions and killings. illegal.

"The Equatorial Guineans who are 40 years old this year were born and raised in a country where human rights are constantly and systematically violated.For too long, people have lived in a climate of fear due to the Impunity for human rights violations "Rights group says.

Despite lobbying by advocacy groups, critics say that there is little evidence that Equatorial Guinea will open.

In December 2017, the government reported foiling a presumed coup d'etat orchestrated by foreign exiles.

In June of this year, a court sentenced more than 130 people convicted of human involvement to sentences of up to 96 years.

Obiang Nguema is believed to be preparing his son, Teodorin, to succeed him as president.

This tiny country of West Africa is one of the main oil producers of the continent and has only 1.2 million inhabitants.

Equatorial Guinea hit oil in 1995, giving the country the highest ratio of GDP per capita in the world, although human rights groups point out that most Guineans equatorial live in misery.

The country is regularly cited by NGOs as one of the most corrupt in the world.

It ranks 141st out of 189 countries according to the United Nations 2018 Human Development Index and 172nd out of 180 according to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.